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audience share the predicament of the characters as they too are waiting for some sort of climactic moment or for the character’s bleak situation to be resolved.
Through one of the main protagonists, Clov, Beckett shows the lack of distinction between the beginning and ending in paradoxical terms. “Grain upon grain, one by one, and one day, suddenly, there’s a heap, a little heap, the impossible heap.” One grain is not a mound, but is a pile of grains an accumulation of distinct grains, or is it a heap? This lack of closure is why Clov changes his initial definition of "finished" to "nearly finished" to "it must be nearly finished.” His addition of the word “must” to his thoughts portrays his desperation, as he clings to the hope that his unhappy existence will soon come to some form of end.
The idea of pairs plays a key role in establishing the relationship between the two main protagonists. The set is filled with doubled props; the windows, the ashbins, and the sheets. The two protagonists, Hamm and Clov, also create a pair. Hamm is injured but holds sway over Clov, who can perform simple functions, “I’ll lean on the table and look at the wall and wait for him to whistle me.” Clov is at a loss until Hamm summons him and we notice that unless Clov is being instructed, he struggles to act constructively. His minute actions described in the stage directions are very repetitive, “He looks up at window left. He turns and looks at window right. He goes and stands under window right.” The audience witnesses a crippled and clumsy character blundering around stage only to perform the small task of drawing the curtains, and the dense and detailed stage directions show that the characters are doomed to restage and repeat these tedious actions. Hamm uses the imperative form to command Clov “Get me ready, I’m going to
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bed.” The idea of dominant-submissive couples can also be found in Vladimir and Estragon in “Waiting for Godot” and Winnie and Willie in “Happy Days.” One of the unspoken themes in the play is that having a companion helps lessen the pain of loneliness and despair. Beckett has compared Hamm and Clov's tense co-dependency to his own marriage; both expressed a desire to leave the other, but were too afraid to.
The setting of Endgame is characteristic of a Beckett play, “bare interior.” The naked and empty stage serves to represent the loneliness of the characters. The set forms a skull, with the two windows as eyes, the two ashbins as nostrils, and Hamm's central position as the mouth. “Left and right, high up, two small windows…front left…two ashbins. Center…Covered with an old sheet, Hamm.” Before the play has started there is an eerie and sinister atmosphere created by the visual reminder of death. The continuous silences also add to the tense atmosphere. Pauses between speeches were unusual at the time for the French style of acting, however, the frequent pauses in the play, during the character’s soliloquies, add to the feeling of emptiness represented by the bare and hostile set. “Can there be misery- (he yawns) – loftier than mine? No doubt. Formerly. But now?”(pause) my mother? (pause) my father? (pause)” Beckett’s precise and detailed stage descriptions leave little room for directorial intervention and he even went as far as to indicate the number of seconds each pause was to be held for. The pauses highlight to the audience the frustration involved in waiting, the emptiness of the character’s existence, and the expectancy of failure and collapse. The broken, abrupt and often unfinished sentences, as well as the isolated phrases, also show the character’s uncertainty and loneliness.
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The opening of a play often adheres to certain dramatic conventions, however Beckett turns upside down the idea of coherent narrative structure and refuses to follow accepted dramatic rules, perhaps to shock the audience and mock their set expectations of a play. He does not use elaborate props nor does he set the scene for the audience before the dialogue begins. “Bare interior. Grey light.” These blunt statements show that Beckett refuses to accessorize the play or its characters with anything but the bare minimum making the play appear very static. The dialogue also does not appeal to the dramatic conventions of the time. He uses tedious, circular dialogue, “And yet I hesitate, I hesitate to…to end. Yes there it is, it’s time it ended and yet I hesitate to…” Hamm’s broken dialogue shows his uncertainty for the future and although he ponders on his “end”, he does not reach a firm conclusion. Beckett uses simple language which echoes the repetitive, basic stage directions, “He goes to Hamm, removes sheet covering him, folds it over his arms.” The characters are already present on stage when the curtain rises as the audience are simply joining them in the middle of one of their repetitive, dreary days. Whilst Clov has wandered aimlessly about the stage, Hamm has remained stationary and so this unveiling of him is very dramatic, and surprising actions such as this give the play an absurdly comical tone. Similarly the characters never exit the stage and so in the final scenes, the play does not achieve a sense of closure. The two acts end on a freeze frame and this achieves the desired effect of unnerving the audience, particularly in the very first performance of the play in the 1950’s when the audience were left in silence, unsure how to act or respond.
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As is often the case in literature, light represents life and darkness symbolises death. The lighting directions in “Endgame” instruct a “Grey light”, and the “two small windows” on stage, show that the light reaching the characters is restricted and so an oppressive and sinister atmosphere is created. In this medium shade, the characters hope for life while living under death's gloom, “He takes off his glasses, wipes his eyes, his face, his glasses, puts them on again.” Hamm is blind and so his glasses are no use to him, however, by continuing to wear them Hamm shows a vain hope for the future. Hamm can only see darkness and the bleak and dim atmosphere on stage shows that Hamm is alienated from the world; it is unknown and remote to him.
In conclusion, the opening to “Endgame” is powerful and dramatic as the thought- provoking, key themes which will dominate the rest of the play are established along with the pitiful situation of the characters. Beckett also creates the atmosphere and tone for the rest of the play through the dull lighting, bare set and repetitive, broken language.
Bibliography
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot (Faber and Faber limited, 1956)
Beckett, Samuel Happy Days (Grove Press, New York, 1961)
, James Damned to Fame: Life of Samuel Beckett (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1996)
John Lennard and Mary Luckhurst, the drama handbook, a guide to reading plays (Oxford university press, 2002)
